Day Five by Rob Corboy and Fr D

My fellow pilgrims were blessed with a sleep in this morning courtesy of Fr Damian who still had to say mass for the brothers at 6am but allowed our daily mass to be celebrated later in the morning.

Today was always going to be a challenging day for us all with the visit to the psychiatric facility. Upon arrival we participated in a beautiful mass with the staff and residents of the hospital. It just showed us that Mass could be celebrated beautifully anywhere - we were in an office that also served as the admissions area. Fr Lawrence gave a dialogue homily and the residents participated enthusiastically. One young fellow was very keen, one hundred Amens. When Fr L was trying to help us understand the call to "go out to the whole world and spread the good news," he asked, "Jesus told us to go forth and...?"  He wasn't expecting "... Multiply in response". It took a few seconds but he made a good recovery.

After Mass, the girls went to the women's section and the boys to the men's section to distribute a hot packed meal and a cold juice. The girls seemed to handle the experience really well. However, the boys and the men with them (that's us) found it very confronting.

After lunch, we went to our different sites, either painting or building. The painters powered through their work and it seems close to done.

Building was a bit of a slow start but turned into a wonderful afternoon as the local children joined us in sifting sand and shovelling dirt. Most of the house was reroofed by the time we left.

Today was Fr Laurence's birthday. The brothers threw him a big surprise birthday bash. We ate like kings and especially enjoyed the whole piglets. We also had to perform and chose to sing We Are One and Abergowrie's college hymn, Long Live Your Dream. It was a wonderful night.